Chavez also gave a public scolding to Lina Ron and the other groups of armed civilian thugs who disguise their criminal activities as support for President Chavez and the Bolivarian revolution.

Chavez says Santana must be arrested immediately “because one cannot be threatening to kill anyone or to take justice into their own hands.”

The president also said the “weapons of the revolution are in the military garrisons and should be only there.”

And Chavez warned that if La Piedrita stirs up trouble in 23 de enero he might go there “in person” to face the group.

What a liar! What a hypocrite!

These groups – La Piedrita, Lina Ron’s “motorizados,” the Alexis Vive Commando, Tupamaros, FBL, etc. – have prospered enormously under Chavez. In fact, many are the bastard crime gangs of the Bolivarian revolution, birthed after Chavez became president.

Over the past decade the Chavez regime, through entities like the Libertador District government on Freddy Bernal’s watch, the Greater Caracas Mayor’s office under Juan Barreto, the Education Ministry under Aristobulo Isturiz, Pdvsa’s security division (PCP), etc., have clandestinely financed and/or armed these and other irregular groups which make up the president’s urban guerrilla rapid-reaction forces.

For example, the Tupamaros always deploy gunmen to “defend” the revolution whenever the call goes out for the “pueblo” to take the streets. However, the faction controlled by Jose Tomas Pinto also runs the crack cocaine and bazuco trade in most of Caracas. (There are two factions of the Tupamaros at war with each other.)

The Alexis Vive Commando, which is armed with military assault rifles, showed its capabilities in 2007 in street fights with Metropolitan Police units.

Lina Ron’s gang thunders around Caracas on motorcycles like a pack of rabid dogs, intimidating everyone who runs afoul of her adored Comandante Chavez.

And then there is La Piedrita’s Santana, who went beyond the pale in his Quinto Dia interview by announcing that Marcel Granier would be executed (“pasado por las armas”) by La Piedrita’s killers at the first opportunity.

Chavez has ignored these thuggish groups for years because, after all, they’re his own rabid attack dogs.

But it appears a light bulb finally switched on inside his dark, twisted mind.

Perhaps it was the daily polls commissioned by the government which confirm that popular support for his plans to be Venezuela’s president-for-life is slipping rapidly.

Why? Perhaps because the general public is keenly aware that all of the recent violence is being stoked by pro-Chavez crime gangs, and instead of stopping the violence senior government officials have praised and defended the gangs.

Or perhaps Fidel Castro called Chavez since yesterday and said something like, “Si no controlas a tus perros, vas a perder apoyo popular y si pierdes al pueblo te vas a joder.”

Or perhaps Chavez took note of today’s massive march to protest democratically against his dictatorial ambitions. You had to be here to see it first-hand. But don’t expect the mainstream dead wood media to report it accurately.

Meanwhile, Chavez’s threat to confront La Piedrita personally in 23 de enero was, well, laughable if one considers the president’s lifelong practice of consciously and carefully avoiding situations in which he might get scratched even slightly:

*The jumpmasters present at the mandatory five jumps by the newly appointed commander of the 42nd Paratrooper Brigade recall they had to “help” him exit the aircraft. “He almost crapped himself,” recalls one.

*The Lieutenant Colonel who led the failed coup of 4 February 1992 was the ONLY co-leader of the coup who failed to achieve any of his assigned objectives; he was also the first to surrender unconditionally without firing a shot, but he got the TV airtime that won him instant popular cult status.

*On 11 April 2002, inside a Miraflores palace protected on all sides by heavily armed National Guard troops and thousands of his thuggish armed supporters, he was the first to propose negotiations with the army on his surrender and flight into exile while others, like Defense Minister Jose Vicente Rangel (aka Grima Wormtongue), were insisting on a final stand against the hated opposition – “…to the last bullet and the last man.”

La Piedrita won’t challenge Chavez, but if it does, the president will deploy massive force against the group to deter the guerrilla gunmen from doing anything stupid. And only when his personal security is absolutely, 110% guaranteed will he “confront” the guerrillas led by a man who told Quinto Dia that he lives and dies at the service of President Chavez.

If La Piedrita’s leader has more class and guts than his supreme leader (as we suspect he might), it’s likely he will surrender voluntarily to the AG.

However, Chavez may be playing with fire.

By ordering Santana’s arrest and scolding Ron publicly, Chavez risks losing the support of some of these groups – though we suspect Ron, the loyal pitbull bitch, will kowtow immediately before her master’s raised hand.